Tread lightly around Malay institutions on campaign trail, analyst tells PH

Attacking Malay institutions to discredit Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) will do little to help Pakatan Harapan (PH) win votes in the Melaka election, according to an analyst.

Neither will personal attacks on rival candidates, another political pundit says.

“PH can campaign as loudly and aggressively in Melaka as it did in previous state elections, so long as it exercises caution when it comes to Malay institutions,” Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara told FMT.

He pointed out that PH’s aggressive attacks on Umno over the Tabung Haji (TH) fiasco during the Negeri Sembilan campaign had failed to resonate with voters.

“I think the Malay voters rejected PH in part due to its aggressive approach and their attempt to link Umno with the failures of TH, Felda and UiTM Holdings,” he said.

Azmi said the prevailing perception among the Malays was that the DAP had tried to “destroy” TH when the government established the special purpose vehicle Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd in 2018 to facilitate the acquisition of TH’s underperforming assets.

That was during Lim Guan Eng’s tenure as finance minister. Lim was also the DAP secretary-general at that time.

A royal commission of inquiry report released in August revealed that poor governance, political interference and financial misrepresentation led TH to report a RM3.4 billion profit despite an RM11 billion deficit from 2014 to 2020.

In Felda, the government revealed that financial mismanagement, aggressive corporate acquisitions and political interference led to a RM10 billion loss in 2017 while UiTM recorded pretax losses amounting to RM157 million over a four-year period from 2017.

“I think you need to be loud and aggressive (in the Melaka campaign), but not by attacking (Umno-BN) directly using the Malay institutions. It does not work,” Azmi said.

He said Melaka PH should focus on showing voters how it can govern the state better than BN, which won the previous state election in 2021.

He was commenting on PH secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail’s recent statement that the coalition would run a peaceful campaign for the Melaka polls, having learnt that victory does not go to the loudest, but to the most trusted.

Saifuddin’s remarks come as PH enters its fourth state election campaign since the end of last year — following polls in Sabah, Johor and Negeri Sembilan — with little electoral success to show for its efforts.

They won only one of five seats they contested in the Sabah state election in November last year, down from eight seats garnered in the 2020 polls.

In the Johor polls in July, they won eight seats, down from 12 in the previous election in 2022, and in the Negeri Sembilan election in August, they came home with only 11 seats, compared with 17 in the 2023 election.

Refrain from mudslinging

Academic Lau Zhe Wei of International Islamic University of Malaysia said PH campaigners must refrain from personal attacks on individual candidates in the rival camp.

This is especially pertinent when it comes to incumbents who have performed well, such as BN’s Noor Helmy Abdul Halem, who is hoping to win a second term as Duyong assemblyman, he told FMT.

“Helmy is popular among Duyong’s residents, including non-Malays. If you relentlessly criticise your opponents, there will be a backlash,” he said, adding that PH should attack the party and not the candidate.

PH is contesting 24 out of 28 seats in the Nov 14 state election. It has formed a pact with Bersatu, which is vying for seven seats, clashing with PH in three.

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